Devil Toast for the CDMA HTC EVO 3D development abandoned

In an interesting turn of events, Agrabren – the developer of an HTC EVO 3D CyanogenMod 9.0 variant we’ve covered in the past called Devil Toast – has called it quits. The nearly-complete CDMA project was due to people using and discussing an alternative kernel that fixed some of the problems that Devil Toast had during development.

Feuds between developers and teams seem to have been par for the course during the EVO 3D’s life, which is one of the reasons why there have not been a lot of major leaps in AOSP-based ROMs for the device. Unfortunately, it’s a good phone with a rather large battlefield.

This particular feud with the other kernel developer reached the point where he’s pretty much known as “that other guy,” or “he who shall not be named” on xda these days, and legal council was involved, according to his own site. In other words, this was more than just an average internet fight.

While both parties had pretty much gone their separate ways, fans continued fanning the smoldering embers until the flames caught again. Or people are too touchy – your call. But in any case, it kept being brought up every day by someone.

It’s sad to see Devil Toast get shelved for the CDMA versions of the EVO 3D. The developer has stated that he’ll start work on a GSM version of it, and hopefully the CDMA EVO crowd will get tossed a port of it.

Other than my dislike of the camera, and the continual fights between developers, the HTC EVO 3D was and still is a really good phone. Hopefully the great work that’s gone into CM9 for the EVO 3D won’t just be tossed in the trash can and the phone can finally see some CM/ICS /AOSP love.

About the Author

Paul King is an associate editor at Pocketables. His articles are generally about HTC lines of products and all the neat things you can do with them. When not writing about them, he's riding a motorcycle, spending time with his wife, baby, and cats, or working as an IT manager at a film production company.

Time to hit up Craigslist and get another phone. It seems like development all around for it is always coming to a dead end.

Dave

Glad I went off on Sprint for a plethora of issues. Got my upgrade moved up. Only Nexus from now on. Gnex will be here tomorrow.
Development has lagged on the 3d since forever.
Lack of source code, lack of official updates. The Hero had better development!
If you like custom or up to date stuff on your phone get a Nexus device.

Simon Belmont

Son of a bitch. Pardon my French. This was one of my favorite AOSP ROMs. I am really sad to hear about this.

Devil’s Toast CM9 was truly a really good CM9 port and nearly 100% functional. All because people couldn’t get along. Tis a shame, because it affects everyone involved. I salute everyone who worked on it when it was supported though. Thanks for your hard work.

Simon Belmont

And to clarify. My curse above was not aimed at anyone involved or the writer of this article.

Merely a declaration of sadness and annoyance rolled into one. I suppose this means that CM10 will never see the day of light either.

surg3d

Man, I really hope we still see some more development for cm9/ cm10 from someone. I still have a year left with this phone and it looks like development is already winding down. :(

The drama on the forums is unbelievable though. Seems like most devs are just trying to get ahead of the others rather than just working together. We’d probably all have a much better phone (maybe even w/ a usable JB) by now if people would just collaborate instead of hoarding code so they can claim to be “first.”

I thought Android was about openness! Of course HTC doesn’t help the situation… Guess my next phone will be a Nexus. But that’s a ways away…

sorry for the rant…

Simon Belmont

Pretty much spot on, here. Like others have said, it’s like taking the ball home, so no one can play. I appreciate everyone’s work, but no one benefits from that. It’s a real shame it ended up this way.

I guess the most annoying part, for me, is that GSM EVO 3D (CM9/CM10) development will continue. We can only hope that it will be ported to the CDMA EVO 3D, or it will be like we’re outside in the rain looking in at a nice warm fire.

Paul E King

Considering the GSM version has the same kernel developer he doesn’t like I wonder how long that project will last.

Simon Belmont

Haha. Very true. :)

I was going to put that out there. But people that were pointing that out were being called trolls at certain other venues. ;)

Simon Belmont

I forgot to mention this. I am in pretty much in the same boat as you.

I have just under one year left before I can upgrade, so I was REALLY hoping for CM9 and CM10, and whatever comes after that, development to continue for the duration. I totally agee that a Nexus phone is looking more and more tempting.

Miguel Pacheco

so this is the equivalent of a kid taking the ball home so nobody else can play?

there’s no denying agrabren is a talented dev, and so is Chad Goodman.

I recall reading that agrabren made his ROMs so they wouldn’t boot with Chad’s kernels, and if true, that is not nice at all. I really don’t think a dev should be deciding what his users may or may not run.

the freedom of choosing a particular ROM/kernel combo on your phone is what makes Android great, and this freedom shouldn’t fall victim to devs’ petty squabbles between themselves.

Eddie

MIkVirgin1.01 is fully complete and works the original Mobile V release with some tweats and unbloated, my daily driver. Great ROM.

Eddie

My bad, the ONLY thing that it still lacks is the Wirelsss tethering that is built in (sprint wi fi mobile spot)…. other than that, great batter time and excellent daily driver.

http://www.idle-handz.com Rever3nD

My take? He took his ball and went home.

When Goodman was essentially exiled from XDA, did he pack up in a pissy mood and cold stop? No.

He also didn’t except donations… and THEN just up and leave.

Think about that. Agraben has received donations from the community that uses his CDMA Devil Toast ROM and he just quit because he can’t take what Chad basically went through… I don’t care if you’re a good dev or not. That’s bad character.

Jabroni

Well said sir, well said.

Pete

Chad is a better developer, face it, he fixed DT, and a second place nerd couldn’t stand it. Also, Agra-cry-baby works at nvidia, if they hire guys who can’t fix their own rom and needs Chad’s help to make it work no wonder lte and tegra 3 don’t work well together.

Simon Belmont

I can understand the frustration people are experiencing at this. I am frustrated too.

However, I don’t think that warrants outright bashing of the developers involved. Leave peoples’ personal and job life out of it. It’s not as if we were owed a ROM or anything. Every ROM developer takes their own spare time to work on something that we get to use and benefit from, and it’s not some self-entitlement that we are owed.

Paul E King

I think a lot of people do not understand that when they donate to a person who puts up a link that they are not hiring that person. They are paying them for work thus far done.

A lot of people, and this is the case with the fake developers out there, pay for what they think they’ll get out of misguided optimism. So when they invest in someone, not seeing a return is a slap in the face.

It’s why you pay for what you have and not what you think you’ll get – same as with the phones… don’t buy in on a promise of WiMAX/LTE… buy in on what they offer.

Simon Belmont

Exactly. Very well stated, Paul.

You donate to them because you support them on what they’ve already done, not for the POTENTIAL end result of their work. If you do it for the latter, then you are possibly setting yourself up for disappointment, regret, and anger.

Jake

The level of ridiculousness at XDA and other forums is stunning. The best developers for the evo3d have either left for other devices or have been chased away. Agrabren and Chad really don’t like each other. Regardless of which side you take, you have to be stupid to mention Chad’s kernal in Agrabren’s thread. These developers are working in their spare time. They don’t owe you anything, hence the word “donation”. If you constantly complain, troll, flame, and throw someone’s adversary in his face on a daily basis, are you really surprised when the developer tells you to go screw yourself? Congratulations. You now have an amazing kernel without a rom. The only active AOSP dev for the evo3d is some kid who did the jbear wire trick because he was afraid to use unknownforce’s downgrade method. Awesome…

Simon Belmont

Yeah. I really wish people would have just left it alone and stopped bringing it up. Agraben was trying to fix things on the side of the ROM itself, and not the kernel. His thread didn’t need constant mentions of other kernels.

Yeah, the AOSP development for the EVO 3D (CDMA) after Agraben’s departure is absolutely abysmal. That’s what stinks the most about all of this. I like HTC Sense, don’t get me wrong, but I love a good AOSP ROM. So, yeah, things are looking bleak at the moment for AOSP ROMs.

Paul E King

As a follow up, looks like 2 other ROMs are incorporating what’s been done so far and 2 developers are working pretty hard on the 3D video.

Also another JB work in progress in effect… so this might not have been the sad times I was feeling…

Simon Belmont

Do you have links to these, Paul? I’d love to have a gander and perhaps bookmark them.

Perhaps it’s not as much doom and gloom as we all thought. Maybe this will force new developers to step up and get AOSP ROMs out to us. Rose tinted glasses. Yeah.

Paul E King

It looks like ParanoidAndroid on the 3D is going to the DT CM9 base today. So most things except the 3D will work.

It looks like 2 other developers are looking at taking on CM9/10 and then the kernel issues look like it’s going to be the same fights again.

Do not have links at the moment.

Jake

That’s the problem though. These devs are using the DT base. Without Agrabren’s support, the roms aren’t likely to progress much. Not to mention the dev responsible for updating ParanoidAndroid has solicited Chad’s help with the kernel. I would imagine that would affect Agrabren’s willingness to ever help these current AOSP devs. The situation is a mess. The drop-off in experience from Agrabren to almost everyone else is significant. I’m not optimistic that a good JB rom will ever make it to the evo3d.

Paul E King

There are only two features really that it needed to make it a complete 3D AOSP ROM. Ad for the stability and the ROM itself, I think we’ll be good now judging by how many people have decided to step in.

We have WiMax, camera, 3D video (not on DT), all radio functionality. I was bummed when I wrote this but looking at all the component parts everywhere I think we’re just short of completely functional by 3D camera and a couple of misc issues,

birddog_61

There are two devs at anthrax-kernels.us working on a jb aosp rom as we speak, not only that but they get along well with chad so that means the rom and kernel can be built side by side to fix problems and include features.

Simon Belmont

Cool. I’m guessing that means one would have to sign up to have access to said ROMs?

It’s nice to hear that development for AOSP ROMs for the EVO 3D hasn’t died completely. I still have one year left with this handset before I can upgrade.